How do you promote the benefits of a great new product or service without spending massive amount of money in traditional, cluttered media such as TV or print advertising?
This is the question that many entrepreneurs with tight communications budgets are asking themselves on a regular basis. It is also the question that many multinational corporations are also raising in order to get a bigger bang for their money.
Many of these entrepreneurs and companies dream of replicating the success of Dietrich Mateschitz, founder of Red Bull. The brand he created 20 years ago has become a huge marketing success worldwide. Red Bull now has 70% of the energy drink market and its success took the biggest food and beverage players by surprise.
The principle of buzz marketing (also called viral marketing) is not to use a specific media. It aims at targeting and occupying all channels of communications in order to create significant "noise" and therefore interest in the market place for consumers to talk about the product and try it.
Communications channels are multiple: internet, chats on the web, teenagers' parties, etc. Buzz marketing can therefore be compared to "wild advertising" or a communication bandwagon led by communities of consumers, fans and enthusiasts who use words of mouth and spread all kinds of rumours (right or wrong) about a particular product or service.
Buzz marketing is an ideal tool for start-ups, small and medium sized companies with limited communication budgets. But it is also a great tool for large corporations wanting to make more noise in the market with a fraction of the huge advertising budgets they are typically used to manage.
The success of Red Bull relies on an original concept: a highly caffeinated and disruptive drink. According to an executive from the company: "The market research results were... devastating, the color of the new drink was... totally unappetizing, the sticky mouth feel and taste were deemed... 'disgusting'; the concept of "stimulates mind and body" was at best... rated irrelevant. The verdict from the market research organization hired by Dietrich Mateschitz was straightforward: "No other new product has ever failed this convincingly!"
A well controlled and limited distribution of the product, together with a super premium price and very focused communication through events, constantly renewed around extreme sports, created a myth around the product that it was reserved for a few lucky people who could find the product. Also, the fact that Red Bull was at first a forbidden product in a number of countries only excited the curiosity of teenagers.
Our recent survey on what most favors a successful buzz campaign confirms that the originality of the product is the first key success factor in order to benefit from quick and positive word of mouth. The more original dimensions the product encompasses in its marketing mix, the better (functions, color, design, packaging, distribution, price, communications, etc.). Think of the iPod or iPhone, each indeed meets every one of these criteria.
Nevertheless, an original product without much added value from a functional or practical point of view can create negative word of mouth. For example, a portable mobile phone communicating with the outside thanks to a tooth implant did not convince many consumers to visit their dentist to adopt the new device.
Consequently, a good buzz marketing campaign can only have a chance of succeeding if it combines both originality and attractiveness from the consumer's perspective.
Finally, the success of Red Bull, Zara, or iPod through buzz marketing shows that it is essential to continuously innovate on the various elements of the marketing mix including the product itself.
A regular stream of innovative products, designs and events can only contribute to more buzz and generate the revenues that will enable the company to add more traditional communications to the company's promotional ammunition and help make the product still more attractive.
